ASA
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Latest property news
Online-only agent’s ‘fee saving’ claims rejected by ASA
Online-only agent Housesimple.com’s claims that it can save London vendors thousands of pounds in fees compared to a traditional agent, and that it sells property three times faster than the average have been rejected by the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) after a complaint about one of its London Underground posters. The ruling by the ASA today means online-only agents, who often promote ‘fee saving’ as a key part of their proposition, must be more careful about the claims they make in advertisements and be more clear about the data they use to substantiate their claims. Within the lengthy Housesimple ruling published today the ASA questions whether the data was London specific enough to substantiate the company’s claim that “we potentially save our average London client £18,764 in fees”. Also, the ASA says that anyone reading the advertisement “would think that the online-only agent’s average client selling an averagely-priced home in London would be able to save that figure on fees in comparison to competing agents,” it says. The ASA questions several aspects of the data used by Housesimple to substantiate its claims. This includes using just one competitor’s fee structure – Foxtons’ – to represent the average fees charged to London…
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Latest property news
Advertising watchdog tackles three companies for misleading ads
Three different property firms including two agents and a developer have made it on to today’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) naughty step after complaints were made against them for publishing misleading ads. The most serious is against London-based agent Harper Brooks, whose website for a 98 unit, £18m new-homes development in Manchester called Grove House was investigated by the ASA following a complaint. Its website for the development, www.grovehousemanchester.co.uk, claimed to offer two-bedroom properties for rent from £650pcm but the complainant said no properties were available at that price, and that no “manned concierge desk” was available, as claimed. The ASA upheld the complaint but also heavily criticises Harper Brooks – which trades as Cambourne Properties Ltd – for not responding to the ASA’s enquiries quickly or adequately enough, which itself is a breach of the ASA’s code. When The Negotiator visited the website earlier today the advert had yet to be amended. The other complaints about misleading ads were less serious and were informally resolved. Hybrid agent YOPA was reported for failing to make it clear that VAT was not included within its ‘savings’ calculator, which shows potential clients how much less they might pay using YOPA compared to a traditional high street agent. YOPA…
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